cube & sauer naming, branding

by Aardappel_ on 05/05/2006 01:26, 55 messages, last message: 06/08/2006 09:53, 23500 views, last view: 05/19/2024 02:01

Ok, this is an odd topic, since I normally couldn't care less about what things are called. But I thought I'd lay out my plans, just incase anyone else has any smart ideas.

Also, I will be overhauling the webpages pretty soon, and this ties into that.

So. The situation is that sauer is where the action is, and cube is now in its final incarnation. I feel we have made a lot of very cool progress with sauer, and more to come. Yet 95% of the world still only knows about cube, which has to do with the fact that cube is linked from 1000s of places on the web, the names, and the way the website is set up.

So the funnel more people to sauer, this is what I intend to do when I overhaul the website:

- make the names "Cube 2" and "Sauerbraten" more sinonymous. I wanted to move away from the name "Cube", but it seems a lot of people have trouble understanding the relationship, whereas "Cube 2" is immediately clear to a larger audience.
- Start referring to cube more as "Cube 1", to put even more emphasis on this.
- revamp cubeengine.com to be a start page that points to all cube & sauer related engine/game projects, and clearly shows the difference. Cube will still be there, it has its own gameplay, maps, and is worth playing even as sauer continues to grow, and will always be available, but it will slowly take more of a backseat to sauer. cubeengine.com will continue to host the forums catering for all engines/games, and sauerbraten.org will be specific to sauer.
- make the distinction between engine and game more clear. Focus more on promoting both as GAMES that happen to have open source engine code, than the other way around.
- create some room for the sauer RPG.. I have yet to name it.

Like it? hate it? ideas for making all this even clearer or what cubeengine.co, should look like?

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#1: ..

by _Fanatic on 05/05/2006 01:50

I like it. Thumbs up. :)

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#2: ..

by pushplay on 05/05/2006 01:51

Well here's one likely source of confusion: if sauerbraten.org is about the engine and cubeengine.com is about the game you're going to be explaining that one for forever.

I do like the idea of hitching on to the Cube name, but "Cube 2" isn't a particularly interesting title. What about <Interesting Title>: Cube 2?

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#3: Name

by headwound on 05/05/2006 02:27

Cube X, Cube(squared symbol), Qube, EterniCube, UltraCube, MegaCube, LaserCube, I understand you want to move away from the cube name but like you said it is recognizable -aard. I remember my first exposure to Cube and I was floored by the ingenuity. I like the Cube name and I vote for keeping it. It is simple and well-known. Variations on it would work, too.

*side note- don't know german :)

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#4: ..

by metlslime on 05/05/2006 02:34

If Cube was 2D then what is a 3D version of a cube? Oh wait...

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#5: Re: ..

by kurtis84 on 05/05/2006 02:42, refers to #4

I've always thought of Sauerbraten as a "Cube2" anyway....makes sense to me.

Metslime I wish you wouldn't have said that :) Here we go with the old "whats really 2D and 3D anyway?" discussion. :)

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#6: Re: ..

by Aardappel_ on 05/05/2006 02:45, refers to #2

neither site is going to be about the engine. I want to move away from being an engine project. Not to say that people can't use the engine for their projects, just I want to make it all about the games instead.

I hope eventually all action will be on sauerbraten.org. It's just that cubeengine.com is what is getting a over million visitors each year :)

And all this "Title A : Title B" stuff thats been happening in games lately I find that extremely boring.

"Cube 2" won't replace "Sauerbraten" as a name, it merely becomes a legal way to refer to it.

Cube 360? HAHAHAHA

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#7: Aard:

by metlslime on 05/05/2006 03:18

well, here are some ideas for a starting point:

1. "Sauerbraten" is a game. There will be a page for sauerbraten, and you can download the game. This package contains no source, no CVS files -- just what you need to play the game and make levels.

2. Oh and by the way, the sauerbraten source code is available, so you can download that too, in a seperate file.

3. "Cube" is another, older game. It has a page, you can download it, and it also happens to be open-source.

4. "XXX" is an RPG using the same engine as Sauerbraten. This is where it gets tricky. If it's really a seperate game, then it wouldn't make sense for it to have a seperate download, seperate install directory, and only contain the maps and assets needed to play it? Presumably, the only shared resources would be the bin directory -- once you move "data" into the packages dir, packages would finally contain all assets used by the engine.

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#8: More...

by metlslime on 05/05/2006 03:23

Splitting sauer and cube downloads into "game only" and "source only" downloads makes it even more clear that ONE license governs the source, and ANOTHER license governs the game assets, maps, and binaries.

It also makes it make more sense that sauer-RPG and sauer-FPS are seperate games with seperate downloads, but sauer-SOURCE is one download since they have identical codebases. Assuming they continue to have identical codebases.

Also, the idea of having a splashpage is good, and I guess you'd end up with three big links on that page -- one to each game's dedicated page. Any source downloads would be on one of those individual pages, since it sounds like you no longer want to advertise the "open source" aspect as much.

Finally, the "cubeengine" domain might not fit into this plan at all, since you're trying to de-emphasize the engine and emphasize the game.

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#9: Re: ..

by pushplay on 05/05/2006 07:54, refers to #4

>> If Cube was 2D then what is a 3D version of a cube?

Hypercube or Tesseract. :) The former being lame, but I actually really like the latter.

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#10: Re: More...

by Aardappel_ on 05/05/2006 09:10, refers to #8

yup, putting the source in a seperate archive may be a good idea. The only problem will be the linux people that want to build from source because binaries are evil, or because their OS doesn't support backwards compatability, whichever comes first.

Seperating the FPS and the RPG would be a good idea, but initially they will share a few resources, mainly textures. Also development will initially be integrated, since RPG features may have an effect on the game interface which affects the FPS. So the first few releases of the RPG will piggyback on the FPS, then become seperate.

Yes, the cubeengine domain becomes less useful. But its the only "good" domain I could get with the word "cube" in it, and by now it is heavily linked... so we'll utilize it. But yes, I'd rather move as much traffic from there to sauerbraten.org. Maybe one day I will make it a redirect and make sauerbraten.org host the old cube as well for those still interested :)

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#11: Re: More...

by CC_machine4 on 05/05/2006 22:06, refers to #10

how about leave cubeengine.com as it is and have a BIG banner at the top displaying sauerbraten as the new, better engine, linking to sauerbraten.org?

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#12: Re: More...

by Aardappel_ on 05/06/2006 00:54, refers to #11

That be the simplest, but also rather confusing to visitors. I want to present a more logical picture.

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#13: domains...

by metlslime on 05/06/2006 02:58

so if you have one splash page pointing to three self-contained websites, you could either have all domains redirect to that splash page, or you have some of the domains redirect to to the game-specific index pages, or you can have multiple physical websites with a domain for each. I think the first option is probably the best, considering that your domains as they are don't map perfectly to the sites you want to have.

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#14: Re: domains...

by Aardappel_ on 05/07/2006 02:01, refers to #13

so lets reformulate it.

Of the 3 major projects, cube, sauer, and sauer RPG (name forthcoming), webpage visits are currently like:

90 / 10 / 0

I would like them to be (right now):

20 / 75 / 5

then, in say a year from now when sauer RPG is mature (and has its own namegoeshere.org), I would like it to be:

5 / 40 / 55

At that point, the misnomer "cubeengine.com" can slowly dissapear into nothingness. But right now, 95% of people discover cube/sauer thru this domain, so thats what I have to work with. Hence my idea to make it into a splash page for now, but I am hoping that after a while major traffic will be at sauerbraten.org instead, so the issue will be gone.

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#15: I may also

by Aardappel_ on 05/07/2006 02:02

move the forums to sauerbraten.org, once the sauer related posts dominate.

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#16: ..

by makkE on 05/07/2006 02:08

Yes, that´s what I thought after reading the post before. People mainly visit for forums, so if the forums were at sauerbraten.org, I guess it would automatically shift the focus towards it.
Maybe even have a sub forum for cube to make even more clear that it´s the "old" thing (call it "Cube Corner" or whatever).

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#17: ..

by hygraed on 05/07/2006 08:12

\"Cube 2: The Bad Day.\"

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#18: Re: ..

by CC_machine4 on 05/07/2006 10:52, refers to #17

"Cube 2: Sauerbraten"? would be simple.

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#19: ...

by Esprit_ on 05/08/2006 06:28

It seems you're rather set on this Sauerbraten thing, but it got a lot of condecending comments thrown back at it when I mentioned it to a few friends over drinks yesterday. One made a comment that a game named after a german entree couldn't possibly be worth playing.

Aside from that, I really do like the name Cube. Not only is it cool sounding, it so perfectly captures the uniqueness of the engine and in-game editing.

If ditching Sauerbraten is beyond consideration, I suggest "Sauerbraten: Cube 2", with "Cube 2" stamped in smaller letters onto the bottom-right corner of the sauer logo, or so. -- Then I'll have a name to spread the word of mouth with, without getting laughed at.

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#20: Re: ...

by Aardappel_ on 05/08/2006 09:35, refers to #19

I am aware that people don't like the word "sauerbraten". One side of me wants to fix that, the other thinks, well, if people are so shallow that they won't try a game based on the sound of a name, then I don't want those people trying it anyway.

Remember that this project for me is non-commercial, I am trying to maximize the number of cool people that try it, not the number of people.

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